SEC Football Q&A: Is This Gus Malzahn's Last Season at Auburn?
Through five weeks of the season, how many of you expected Texas A&M and LSU to be tied atop the SEC West and Florida to be the unquestioned front-runner in the SEC East?
Not many.
The first five weeks of the 2015 college football season have been a rollercoaster for fans of SEC teams and as a result, no conference teams are in the Associated Press Top Five, and its highest team (LSU) is ranked No. 7—the lowest ranking for the best SEC team since 2010.
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Which means, there's no time like the present to hit up an SEC Q&A.
It wasn't too long ago that this question was in reference to NFL openings, as AL.com's Brandon Marcello noted in July. Now, it might be asked more in regard to Auburn's struggles in 2015.
Whether this particular question was in reference to the NFL or Malzahn's seat potentially warming up, the answer is a resounding "no."
Malzahn misevaluated his quarterback situation this year with junior Jeremy Johnson, and he knows it. While Johnson possesses all of the talent in the world, there was never anything to suggest that Johnson couldn't read defenses. That likely explains the quick hook the staff had on him as the Tigers starting quarterback and the obvious frustration they had leading up and immediately after the decision.
That isn't a reason to show him the door, but it's certainly a bullet point that could be considered in the years to come if things don't improve.
There is absolutely no pressure on Malzahn up to this point, and barring a total disaster this season (which isn't out of the question), that will remain the case. So he won't be fired.
The NFL angle is likely out the window this season as well because the offensive struggles probably tarnished his reputation of being one of football's stellar scoring minds. That, coupled with the struggles of Eagles head coach and spread proponent Chip Kelly, likely ended that possibility for the foreseeable future.
Without a doubt, the quarterback issue will be a glaring one until 2016, and possibly beyond, because while 5-star commit Jacob Eason is incredibly talented, he'll still have some growing pains if he's the starter right out of the gate.
I wrote on Saturday afternoon that Georgia's offense got exposed by Alabama in the 38-10 loss. There's not much head coach Mark Richt and offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer can do about it this year. They don't have a quarterback to stretch the field deep, a coordinator who knows how to do it or wide receivers capable enough to take pressure off of Malcolm Mitchell.
"It was a tough one," quarterback Greyson Lambert said after the game, according to Georgia's official site. "My hat's off to their defense. They came ready to play, and we just did not execute—whether it was communication or X’s and O’s we did not do our job."
The silver lining for Georgia, though, is that while it couldn't expose Alabama's biggest weakness—its secondary—there aren't many other teams on the schedule that can successfully take Nick Chubb out of the game and force the Bulldogs into Plan B.
Florida can.
That's about it.
So while it won't be fixed this season, it might not matter in the race to win the SEC East if Georgia can topple Florida and/or it gets some help from other teams along the way. If it can get to Atlanta, it'd be 60 minutes from an SEC title whether the quarterback issue is fixed or not.
It's certainly better than advertised, but I wouldn't elevate Georgia's offensive line to the top spot in the SEC quite yet.
That spot still likely belongs to Arkansas for the time being. The Hogs have only given up two sacks on the season—the fewest in the SEC. I know, I know, Arkansas is a run-first, run-second and run-third team, which skews those statistics.
While head coach Bret Bielema does pound the rock, his Hogs have passed on 41.8 percent of their plays this year. That's up a little bit from the 39.2 percent of plays that were passes in 2014 and still wildly impressive considering quarterback Brandon Allen has been forced into obvious passing situations quite often in 2015.
The running game—sans Jonathan Williams—is still averaging 206.6 yards per game on the ground, Alex Collins is a force and those big men up front are still plowing the road on a consistent basis.
LSU should be in the mix too, based on those holes that look comparable to the Grand Canyon that star running back Leonard Fournette runs through every week. But LSU simply refuses to pass (61 attempts on the season—22 less than Georgia Tech) and hasn't been forced to at all this year, so getting a true gauge on the Tigers is a bit impossible through their first four games.
Alabama's not bad, though, and it wouldn't be surprising at all if the Crimson Tide proves to be the best by season's end.
Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Recruiting information is courtesy of 247Sports. Statistics are courtesy of CFBStats.com.
Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and national college football video analyst for Bleacher Report as well as a host on Bleacher Report Radio on SiriusXM 83. Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.
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